This is a divisional of copending application Ser. No. 07/559,629 filed on July 30, 1990, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,539, is a continuation-in-part of the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/270,845, which was filed on Nov. 14, 1988, U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,334. The disclosure, references, and comments contained in that application are fully incorporated herein by reference and made a part of this specification.
This invention relates generally to a mechanism for de-aerating and dispensing a finely powdered product into bags, and particularly to a vertical bottom-fill auger assembly having an internal, rotating agitator or wiper, and a vertical bag handling carriage or mechanism including a traveling bag settler.
Various rotary feed auger systems for dispensing particulate matter into containers are known, as well as their respective disadvantages and shortcomings, as were discussed in the previously referenced co-pending application